Can you still go-kart in Tokyo? Is it legal in 2026?

Can you still go-kart in Tokyo?

Yes. Tours run daily across Tokyo, including the Shibuya Scramble route. Nothing about the Nintendo case made street karting illegal, and no court ever ordered the karts off the road.

The confusion is understandable. Headlines in 2018 and 2020 read like a company had been shut down, and a lot of them used the phrase "real-life Mario Kart" in the title. What was actually being shut down was the use of Nintendo's intellectual property by a kart company. The kart company kept operating the whole way through the case, and it still operates now under a different name.

So if you have a trip booked and you are wondering whether the thing you saw on YouTube three years ago still exists: it does. You will just not be dressed as Luigi.

Is street go-karting legal in Tokyo in 2026?

Yes. These karts are registered, road-legal vehicles, and you drive them on public roads under ordinary Japanese traffic law. That is precisely why the paperwork is strict: a real driving licence, a 1949-Geneva International Driving Permit, and a minimum age of 18.

It helps to stop thinking of them as fairground karts. Legally, you are driving a small vehicle in Tokyo traffic. You stop at red lights, you indicate, you sit in the flow of cars, and a guide leads the group. The licence requirement is not the operator being cautious. It is the law that applies to anyone driving on a Japanese road.

That also answers a question people ask nervously: no, you are not doing something legally grey that might get you in trouble as a tourist. You are driving a legal vehicle with the correct permit, which is the whole reason the permit is non-negotiable. The full requirements are in our Tokyo go-kart licence and IDP guide.

What happened with the Nintendo MariCar lawsuit?

Nintendo sued over the MariCar name and the rental of Mario character costumes. It won at every stage. The damages ended at 50 million yen, the name had to go, and the costumes had to go. The karting did not.

The case ran for years, which is part of why the story got muddled in people's memory. Here is the sequence.

Reported by Japan Today and covered in detail by Japanese IP law commentary.

Read that table again and notice what is missing: at no point did any court rule on whether go-karts belong on Tokyo streets. That was never the question in front of them. Nintendo was protecting Mario, not regulating traffic. Our real-life Mario Kart guide goes deeper into the story.

Can you still dress as Mario on a Tokyo go-kart?

No. That is the one thing that genuinely ended. Operators do not rent Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach or any other Nintendo costume, and they will not let you drive in one you brought yourself.

This is the part people are actually mourning when they ask if it still exists, so it is worth being blunt. The Nintendo character costume is gone, permanently, by court order. Anyone advertising a "Mario Kart tour" with Nintendo characters in 2026 is either using old photos or is not being straight with you.

What operators do provide is a costume rack: superheroes, animals, cartoon characters, dinosaurs, all sorts, none of them Nintendo. Most people pick something, take the same photos, and have the same day. The costume was always a garnish. The reason the videos went viral was a tiny kart in the middle of the Shibuya Scramble, and that has not changed at all.

What do you need to drive one?

Be 18 or over, and bring your own driving licence plus an International Driving Permit issued under the 1949 Geneva Convention. Turn up without the right paperwork and you cannot drive, and you generally will not get a refund.

The trap here catches people every week, so read this bit slowly. It has to be the 1949 Geneva IDP. A permit issued under the 1968 Vienna Convention, the 1926 Paris Convention or the 1943 Washington Convention is not accepted in Japan, no matter how official it looks. You also cannot get an IDP once you land, so it has to be sorted at home before you fly.

• Most countries: home licence + 1949-Geneva IDP.
• Switzerland, Germany, France, Taiwan, Belgium, Monaco: home licence + an official Japanese translation, instead of an IDP.
• Living in Japan: a valid Japanese licence works on its own. A SOFA licence works for US Forces Japan.

Every detail, including where to get each document and what to physically bring on the day, is in our licence and IDP guide. It is the single most common reason a booking falls apart at the counter.

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Is it still worth doing without the Mario costumes?

For most people, yes. The costume was never the reason it was fun. Sitting a few centimetres off the tarmac while Tokyo goes on around you is the reason, and no court touched that.

Be honest with yourself about what you came for, though. If the whole point of the trip was a photo of you dressed as Mario in a kart, that photo is not available any more, and no operator can give it to you. If the point was the drive, you have lost nothing.

The Shibuya Scramble at night, from a kart, is still one of the strangest and best things you can do in this city. We give the honest verdict, including who should skip it, in is Tokyo go-karting worth it, and the safety picture in is it safe.